


all it takes

by dulcettones



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Team 7, Civilians, Everyone gets the hugs they deserve, Families of Choice, Fix-It, For Want of a Nail, Found Family, Gen, Kakashi is a good teacher, Multi, Naruto is Sunshine, Ninjas and Civilians, OC Is Just Nosy, SAKURA IS A BADASS, Slow Build, Team 7 Gets Adopted and the World is a Little Better, Team 7 Gets Their Shit Together, Who Gave Sasuke a Sword
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2019-08-21 18:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16581830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dulcettones/pseuds/dulcettones
Summary: Sometimes, all it takes is one act of kindness.A civilian looks at a blonde haired boy hated for who he is, and thinks- he’s just a child. She looks at the lone survivor of a massacre be revered and idolized and thinks- he shouldn’t be alone. She looks at a pink haired girl with insecurities on top of insecurities and thinks- well, that won’t do. (And she glances at Kakashi, because she already knows him, and says she’s helping him whether he wants it or not.)In which someone who will never quite understand them helps them understand themselves, because you don’t need to understand someone's struggles to love them.





	1. one: a beginning, an offer

It starts like this -

He’s nine years old and Naruto is used to people calling him demon, used to them hating him and glaring at him. He’s used to negative reactions, and even more used to the offense that runs deep in his veins because he never did anything to them. ( _Yet_ , because if they’re mean to them then hell _yeah_ is he going to prank them.)

He’s not used to this.

\- “He’s just a child.” 

Naruto stares at the lady who just spoke. She’s pretty, black haired tied up into a bun, face scrunched in confusion as she looks between Naruto and the shop owner like there’s something she’s missing.

Him and the shop owner look at each other while she’s looking at them. He’s pretty sure this is the first time him and a shop owner will ever be on the same wavelength, because they both have no idea what’s going on. This is something out of the norm, something completely alien. No stranger has ever said that before, not to Naruto.

 She takes the candy he placed on the counter and picks it up, studying it for a second before she places it down and pulls out some money for it. Naruto watches the shop owner slowly take her money and give her the candy in a bag, and it’s in that moment he realizes she just took his candy and bought it.

 Outrage wells in his chest, like a wave rushing to meet the beach. “Hey! That’s _mine-_ ”

 “Yeah.”

He falters as he stares at her, and watches dumbly as she hands him the bag. Her agreement seems too easy, almost, and he waits for the punchline except. The lady turns to the shop owner and frowns at him disapprovingly, and it reminds Naruto of the ladies at the orphanage when he does something wrong, of Iruka-sensei when the class is getting so rowdy, and feels even more confused that the look isn’t directed towards him.

“Don’t be mean to kids.”

She turns to Naruto now, and hesitates. The frown on her face is easy to see, and she slips her hand into the sleeves of her yukata. “I’m sorry he treated you like that.”

“Who- who do you think you are?” He splutters, even though his chest feels warm, even though the only thing he can think of is that he’s not sure what’s happening. He feels like the world is spinning out of its orbit, almost.

“I’m just - just a normal civilian, I guess?”

But she isn’t. She isn’t because civilians hate him the most, but she’s just staring at him with confusion in her eyes but no ill will. She just looks at him and it’s like - she’s one of the few people that see _him_ , instead of a demon.

Her eyes soften as he continues staring at her, and she mutters something under her breath, so soft he almost doesn’t hear it, but- It’s a repeat of the words she’s just said, but sadder. “You’re just a child.”

He’s not. He’s going to be a ninja, he’s not a kid. He’s in class, he’s going to be the best, he’s going to be the Hokage. Naruto is not _just a child_ , but the way she says it makes him stop.

It should feel like pity, should feel like something Naruto hates, and yet.

It doesn’t.

* * *

 

“... Do you have parents?” 

Naruto looks up from the swing set he’s sitting on, and before him is the civilian from the candy shop a few days ago. She looks awkwarder now, and her dark purple yukata is patterned with plum blossoms. Her hair is still tied up in a bun, but there are wisps of hair framing her face this time, and she doesn’t look as put together as she did before.

“Uh, no?”

She frowns, and she looks around like someone is watching - there’s hesitation clear in her expression, in her demeanor, and it looks like a decision is being made as she braces herself. “Are you homeless?”

“Hey! I have a home, who do you think I am?”

“A bullied orphan child?” She shoots back, not even phased at Naruto’s bristling. He jumps off the swing so he can look up at her and glare, crossing his arms over his chest. “My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I’m going to be the next Hokage, I’m not _homeless_!”

“Okay.” She replies, and he falters because - he says that and people laugh, they don’t agree. And she’s looking at him without any hesitation, without any doubt. Like she believes him, even though no one does, not even Iruka. “I’m just, uh. Do adults treat you like they did in that shop often?”

Naruto narrows his eyes.

She takes that as an answer and continues talking, “That’s really not okay, do you- how do you buy things?”

This feels like a trick. “I just buy whatever they’ll give me?”

“... Is that why you’re wearing an orange jumpsuit?” She asks, and she looks more pained as the conversation continues.

“Hey! Orange is the best!” Naruto shoots back, because who does she think it is, to insult his favorite color like that, _orange_ is the best of them. It's the color of sunset, it's the color of warmth, it makes people look at him even when they don't want to.

Her smile is amused at his indignation, but she still looks hesitant. There's a silence where she doesn't say a word, and Naruto is tempted to say something because what's going on, until. “Do you... want help buying things? If they won't sell you anything, I'll buy it for you and hand it over like a few days ago. I know this is strange, but you’re a _kid_ and you shouldn’t be alone, much less treated like that, and I haven’t had company on shopping trips since my husband died- so.”

Naruto freezes.

(This is what it feels like for your world to start and start again, this is how the butterfly effect works, this is how one act of kindness will change a million of things in the future.)

“What?”

“You’re just- you’re just a kid. You shouldn’t have to be alone if you don’t want to.”

Naruto should hate being called a kid. He’s going to be a ninja, the faster he can grow up, the better but. But she calls him a kid differently than other people call him kid. She doesn’t use it as a synonym for _brat_ , doesn’t use it to tack on a reminder that he’s too small and not to be taken seriously. She uses that word like it baffles her, how he’s treated, like he’s supposed to be something precious.

Naruto loves this village, even if sometimes it’s so hard to love the people. He loves Konoha, but god, does it make him lonely sometimes.

And here someone is, a civilian, telling him he shouldn’t be lonely, offering to give him a hand.

How could he not take it?

So he says okay, so she introduces herself as Tsukimiya Yuri, and so the world changes, just like that.


	2. two: step by step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Change doesn't happen quickly, especially not when you have traumas like an overgrown garden you don't know how to care for. Sometimes, it's good to just learn how to start.
> 
> Naruto starts learning that some people might really just be kind for the sake of it, Kakashi starts thinking that maybe he can change a bit, and Yuri pushes them along.
> 
> It will take a bit, maybe a while, but step by step, hurt might just heal.

Somewhere along the line, Yuri found out about Naruto’s eating situation. Or well, it’s really not a situation. Ramen day and night is the best kind of life if you ask him, but the twitch in Yuri’s eyes when she found out Naruto only ate either Ichiraku’s or cup ramen was a bit. It felt a little like a threat about to happen, except the topic was his eating habits instead of bodily harm. Yuri managed to make the offer to teach him to cook sound like a demand too, all saccharine with an aura behind her that said– _if you don’t show up, I’ll kill you_.

For a civilian, Yuri is kind of terrifying.

It’s how Naruto finds himself in front of apartment 302, fist knocking on hardwood door. He realizes idly that this is the first time he’s been to her apartment - that it’s the first time he’s been to anyone’s home other than himself, really. It makes him pause, pushes him a little bit off kilter.

But Naruto adapts fast, and he’s growing used to Yuri’s easy kindness. (It’s a good thing to get used to, because it makes his chest warm, makes him want to cry sometimes, but. It’s good. So good, he doesn’t know what to do with the feeling.)

She opens the door in a hurry, and honey amber eyes brighten at the sight of him. His answering smile is easy, something he doesn’t even have to try to lift up the corner of his lips. “Hey!” He greets, and Yuri smiles warmly as she motions him inside. Patting his head softly as he walks back.

“We’re going to make curry today.” She responds as greeting, because Yuri’s always going to cut to the point instead of spending much time with small talk. “Because ramen is not healthy to eat everyday, you need other food in you.”

“But ramen is the best food ever.” Naruto pouts, hands behind his head. The reply isn’t super vehement because he - well. He kinda likes the feeling of her fretting over his health, is that weird? It’s not like Yuri is dissing ramen, which would be enough to probably end their budding friendship, so. Branching out to try different foods can’t be a terrible idea.

“When’s the last time you ate a fruit, Naruto? If you get a disease or something because you aren’t eating right and die, I’m going to bring you back to kill you myself.”

“I’ve never gotten sick in my life!”

“Bull. _Shit._ ”

Naruto sticks out his tongue at her, “I’m not lying! I don’t remember the last time I was sick! And shouldn’t be watching your language, I’m an impreciousable boy!”

“Impressionable,” she corrects absently, “but good word. Where’d you learn that?”

“Iruka-sensei said it the other day.”

Yuri blinks once at the name, but she doesn’t comment on it. She does grin though, amused and a little wry. “As for the language, well.” She turns to look at a picture on one of the cabinets, “You want to be a ninja, right? If- If you’re going to be old enough to kill someone soon enough, you’re old enough to curse.”

There’s something about her demeanor that makes Naruto stop. It’s sadness, like rain all encompassing but falling slowly, like when Naruto thinks about who his parents might have been and how they might have loved him. How things might have been different, and how they actually turned out. He doesn’t like that expression on Yuri, so he grins something loud and bright, puts his hands in his pockets, and shouts-

“ **Fuck!** ”

Yuri jumps out of her stupor, bewilderment clear in her futures. Naruto snickers at her, grin fox-like as he skips towards the kitchen. “You said I’m old enough to curse! Now, let’s start cooking!”

 

* * *

 

“Naruto, what are you doing?” Yuri asks as she stirs the curry pot, eyebrows raised.

He just grins in reply, snickering as he continues to spread a heaping of chili oil on the bottom of one dish before he carefully puts rice over it. “I call it the spice roulette! We put a whole bunch of spice in one dish and whoever picks it has to deal with it!” He doesn’t see her expression because he’s too busy making sure that both dishes look the exact same, but he does hear her huff of laughter.

“You’re going to regret this.” But hey, she isn’t stopping him.

“What’s life without a little spice!” He shoots back cheerfully, wiggling his eyebrows.

 

* * *

 

Naruto does regret it. Very much. He can’t feel his tongue, is pretty sure he went through Yuri’s whole carton of milk, and is now rubbing bread over his tongue like that might solve his problems.

Yuri is laughing though, bright and easy, like the tinkling of bells. The older woman has to hold her stomach because of how bad she’s laughing, but she didn’t fail to hand him milk and bread while she was doing so. Naruto can only glare at her through teary eyes, _god everything burns-_

“Told you so.” Yuri snickers, scooping curry in a tupperware container. “When you’re done screaming over the spice, do me a favor and bring this over to the neighbor? If a dog opens the door, you can just give it to them.”

It takes about five more minutes, but Naruto does grab the tupperware while Yuri starts to wash the dishes. He puts on his shoes and starts to leave the apartment before he remembers something - “Which neighbor?”

“303!”

Naruto turns and opens the door, knocks on it as he shouts, “Delivery!”

He waits, and when the door opens, Naruto blinks.

He’s wearing a mask that covers his mouth and his nose, and his hair is grey and somehow sticking all the way up like grass. His expression looks lazy but unsurprised, like deliveries are something that happens often, but then-

But then, he finally meets Naruto’s eyes.

If Naruto wasn’t already looking at the guy, he wouldn’t have noticed the flinch.

But, he does.

 

* * *

 

Kakashi knows his ghosts, and he keeps them tamped down best he can. He knows his traumas, knows he’s so fractured that he can’t even meet a child that deserves to have someone - he knows he’s a coward.

So, he thinks idly, absently, as he stares down at the child in front of him, this must be punishment for all the cowardice.

He looks so much like them. Minato’s coloring and Kushina’s features, and the way he cheerfully thrust forward the tupperware.

It reminds him of the past, of Kushina and Minato dropping off food and making sure he eats, of the easy way they cared for him like their own. It reminds him of the past, and any reminder of that always makes his chest ache, even more so because the boy he _failed_ is standing right before him.

(You always have a choice, and he made his when he didn’t pick up Naruto to try and raise himself. There’s always a choice, and again and again, Kakashi lets fear make his.)

“Are you okay, mister?” Naruto asks dubiously, as if he thinks Kakashi is messed up in the head. (He is, but.) He knows from guarding him as an anbu the way Naruto speaks, but he doesn’t - he doesn’t quite realize how similar it is to Kushina until the words are directed towards him.

A deep breath in, to calm yourself. A quiet breath out as a reminder to lock away your emotions.

Kakashi smiles under the mask, and it’s easy because he’s made it easy. “Maa, maa, of course. I was just surprised to see a delivery boy so short.”

Naruto fumes at that, “I’m not that short!” He snaps, crossing his arms over his chest as he glares up at Kakashi. “You’re just a freakishly tall scarecrow!” He points up at him accusingly, and Kakashi prays to the gods for an escape.

His prayers are answered by his neighbor, though Kakashi is absolutely certain she’s the reason he has to wish for escape anyways. Yuri pads over to Kakashi and Naruto, looking between the two of them as she saunters far enough to lean herself against Kakashi’s doorway.

She turns towards Naruto, “You are short, which is why you need to eat things that will help your growth instead of stunt it.”

She turns towards Kakashi, and he feels dread pool in his stomach because if his neighbor is anything, it’s terrible nosy. She’s worse than housewives, though her one saving grace might be that she learns secrets and she keeps them.

“What’s got Naruto asking if you’re okay or not?” She’s trying for casual, but failing. He raises an eyebrow at her and she smiles at him back. She reaches forward to ruffle Naruto’s gold locks, and he flinches at first but slowly calms down at the touch, the anger at being called short dissipating at Yuri’s easy affection.

Kakashi smiles, apropos of nothing. “Nothing, I was just surprised at seeing a kid.”

“We're going to talk about feelings later.” Yuri announces easily, like someone would announce the weather. Except, feelings are a terrible thing to talk about, Kakashi feels like he needs a three day warning to escape beforehand if they're going to talk about _feelings._ But, Yuri suddenly pauses before he can protest as she blinks at the sky.

“Naruto, it’s really dark out.”

“... Yeah?”

“Too dark, wanna just sleep over? - Wait, no, you don’t have any pajamas and I don’t have any clothes that would fit..” Yuri looks up at Kakashi, “Would you happen to have any old clothes?”

Kakashi shakes his head, and watches as Yuri sighs as if it’s a great inconvenience that Kakashi doesn’t have children clothes. She doesn’t have children clothes herself, why would he?

“I guess me and Kakashi will walk you home.”

Kakashi stops.

He raises an eyebrow, but Yuri just gives him a cheeky grin, a flutter of her eyelashes as if to say ‘ _you can’t let me walk home on my own_ ’, which isn’t wrong. Kakashi tries to make a habit of keeping his promises because he broke so many already, and the promise he made to keep her safe is one of them. It’s an easy promise, normally, because his neighbor keeps out of everyone’s way, but.

Kakashi looks at Naruto, who’s obviously torn between insisting that he can walk home on his own and flattered that Yuri even offered to walk him home for his own safety. Naruto, who’s the second coming of his parents, who’s one of the people he abandoned in his grief.

Kakashi is a coward, but he can't just... not.

“Alright.” He agrees with a sigh, turning to put away the curry container. He hears Naruto ask about him and Yuri’s huff of laugh, a “don’t worry, he seems like an asshole but is actually a softie” that makes him twitch.

 

* * *

 

Naruto is in his apartment and Yuri is pleased with the promise that he’ll sleep over every time he comes over to cook. It was mildly amusing to see her expression as she realized the state of Naruto’s living situation, even if Kakashi didn’t understand what was so bad. It’s a bit shabby, but it’s shelter nonetheless, a place to sleep in and eat in. That’s enough, isn’t it?

Maybe it’s just a civilian thing, but Kakashi has camped outside enough to know that any shelter can be a luxury. He does understand that Naruto’s apartment is falling apart on the bad days, but it’s really a fine place to live in. It’s why Kakashi agreed when Naruto said that his apartment was fine, much to the surprise of the younger boy.

“So.” Yuri starts, knocking Kakashi out of his stupor. “What’s your deal with Naruto?”

Kakashi keeps walking, idly wondering if he walked fast enough, that he could escape this conversation.

“You don’t have a problem with him because of his big furry friend, I know you - you don’t give a shit about that.” She thinks aloud, “So is he a part of your long list of traumas?”

This is why Kakashi hates Tsukimiya Yuri, just a bit. She gets to the heart of things without any reluctance, and will wait for your answer as long as it takes. She’s too good at playing therapist, which Kakashi very much does not need in his life. Alas, he knows Yuri.

She’s so nosy that he might as well give in, but he really doesn’t want to. The way she looks at him judgingly makes his skin crawl, just like Iruka - introducing them was one of Kakashi’s worst mistakes. They gang up on him about his feelings, and he idly wishes to go back to the time where he didn’t have any friends. (A lie, but, no one needs to know that.)

“I won’t make you talk about it.” Yuri continues, and Kakashi considers just shunshin-ing away to his apartment to not have to deal with this. “But he’s probably gonna show up quite a bit, so I want to know if your issue with him is well-founded so I can keep you two away from each other.”

“... I did that well enough all on my own.” He mutters, heart heavy as he knows full well he entered this conversation and Yuri will make sure he finishes it.

He hates talking about his feelings. It gives him hives.

The option to run away to his apartment to leave Yuri to walk by herself is all the more tempting, or, maybe he can just leave Pakkun with her.

“He’s the son of my sensei.” Kakashi begins, though maybe begin isn’t the right word because he starts and he stops. How can you put into words what’s plagued you for so many years, how do you describe just how badly you can _fail_? “When they died, I went into anbu instead of caring for him.”

He closes his mouth, refusing to continue, not wanting to say anything else. There aren’t enough words to describe the regret, but even if he went back in time he’s not sure he would have changed his choices. Naruto reminds him so much of Obito, of a boy always late, who gave Kakashi a gift he’ll always keep with him, who taught him how important teammates are. The parallels - A shunned boy still sunny and kind despite everything?

Naruto is the child incarnate of sunlight, and Kakashi is far too used to the shadows to step out to care for him.

“You were so traumatized by whatever the fuck you went through you’re still fractured to this day.” Yuri starts, looking straight at him with eyes of molten gold. “Maybe you weren’t in any state to help the kid, and knowing you, you’re probably regretting it to hell.”

This is why Kakashi likes Tsukimiya Yuri, she gets to the heart of things so Kakashi doesn’t have to. He looks at her, hands in his pockets, not looking away because this is his way of telling her she’s right.

“You regret everything, Kakashi.” Yuri tells him, words blunt, steady. “Instead of regretting that you couldn’t help him in the past, you can help him now. I’m not a ninja and never want to be, I’m not going to _get_ whatever he’s being taught nor do I really want to. But you do, so.” She shrugs, and that steel of spine is being tucked away into something easier. “You can help him with what I can’t, if you wanted.”

Does Kakashi want to? He doesn’t have what it takes to help anyone, not really, not when he can barely help himself.

“It can be slow.” She tells him, “But you could get to know him as him, instead of this amalgamation of all your mistakes.”

It’s.

Well.

It’s food for thought, if anything. It’s something that feels a little too much like hope in his chest, fluttering like a butterfly in a cage. It wasn’t anything but a reminder, but Kakashi thinks he might have needed that. He doesn’t have to go about it quickly, because Naruto has Yuri now, but maybe.

Step by step, and he might get there.

(Helping the child that he didn’t in the past now might make the ache in his chest ease, and Kakashi thinks he’d like that.)

But far before that, he’s going to get in his apartment, he’s going to read Icha Icha, and he’s going to let that thought stew for later because the thought of stepping into Naruto’s life makes him panic, just a bit.

Little steps.


	3. three: slow and steady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, when your world changes, it’s a slow thing. Like raindrops falling and getting caught in a bucket, like a person learning a language a little each day until they become fluent. Some things take a while to build up to, and because it takes so long you almost don’t realize it. Days pass, turn into weeks, and routines start.
> 
> So natural, you don’t quite realize it until you stop for breath and notice that - oh, if you compare your life from today to back then, it’s so very different. 
> 
> (Naruto and Yuri slot into each other's lives effortlessly, and they're both okay with that.)

Naruto has come to a realization that makes him feel a lot better about how weirdly nice Yuri is. It’s something that comes to mind a few months after they first met, something that he’s a bit surprised he hasn’t noticed before. Maybe she makes it so you can’t notice it at first, but.

Yuri’s lonely too. She has friends, has Kakashi and sometimes mentions hanging out with other people but - there’s a distance still. Naruto sees the way she looks at the picture on the table of that man with an easy smile when no one’s looking. She looks so lost it makes him want to call out to her, so sad it makes him want to yell to pull her attention away. She shouldn’t have any business looking so lonely, especially not with Naruto in her life now.

Life is give and take, and if Yuri is helping Naruto be a little less lonely, Naruto is doing the same for her.

So when she asks if he wants to stay over one night when he drops the groceries at her house after a shopping day, Naruto tilts his head but doesn’t refuse immediately. She said the words with such nonchalance, like it didn’t matter either way - and maybe it doesn’t. If Naruto says no, she won’t get offended, she’ll say that that’s fine and go about her day. If Naruto says yes, she’ll still go about her day, she’ll just also get out his futon. Either way, she’s going to smile at him warmly.

Not every offer is one made out of pity. Naruto remembers being mildly offended when Yuri saw his apartment and vehemently complained about how terrible it was, how she insisted he stay with her on cooking nights so she doesn’t have to walk him home to the reminder that he’s an orphan living alone in a shitty place. He remembers offense, but then surprise.

And then, the wonder if this is all because she feels bad for him.

Demon child, they call him. Monster. Not supposed to be alive.

The realization that she might just be as lonely as him though, that makes him feel better. There is no way this is pity. This is give and take, this is two lonely people finding company in each other. He is helping her just as much as she helps him, and Naruto likes that.

“Okay.” He says, vulpine grin on his lips, hands behind his head. “I’ll sleep over! Can we get ramen for dinner?”

“No.”

“But Yurrriiiii.”

“If you convince Kakashi to pay, we can go.”

“Deal.”

 

* * *

 

Yuri blinks because there’s a rare sight in front of her, and she wonders idly if she should take a picture to prove to the world that this actually happened.

Naruto is quietly studying - ah, wait, no, not quiet. He just cursed. The sunshine child is crouched over her kotatsu and glaring at his papers like it’s done him an offense, pencil tapping against his temple absently as he crosses out the whole page. He looks angry, frustrated, five seconds away from crumbling up all the paper before him and throwing it around to right whatever wrongs he wrote. She leans against the entryway to the living room, voice rising so she can stop it before Naruto decides that burning his work is the best choice of action.

“Need help?”

Naruto snaps over and looks at her, eyes narrowed, and Yuri clamps down that spike of fear at the way he assesses her as if she might be a threat waiting to happen. It reminds her idly of all her other ninja friends, and she tries to push away the reminder that Naruto will be a ninja just like them.

He’s just a child, but they’re in the time of child soldiers. At least they aren’t going to war anymore, aren’t sending children barely 13 to fight battles because there aren’t enough bodies to lose, but. Still.

Yuri will never understand ninjas, but that doesn’t mean she can’t love them anyways.

“I don’t.” Naruto snaps at her, tone mullish. “I just- it’s... I have trouble.. Reading..” He trails off, and there’s a flush on his cheeks like this is something to be embarrassed about, a boy his age not being able to read fluently. Like there’s shame in not knowing, and maybe there is, but not because he doesn’t know.

In how no one had cared to make sure he knew- that’s what makes shame settle in Yuri’s bones. She knows who Naruto is, was alive and present for all the rumors, has seen how people treat him like he’s not a boy with a smile like sunlight. Like he isn’t weirdly thoughtful- she notices, how he does something silly whenever she’s sad, of course she does, she isn’t a _fool_. So she looks at Naruto, whom she knows, and she looks at the way people who never tried to know him treat him and it’s. It’s like hope diminishing day by day, like a loss in the faith of humanity.

Well, until you look at Naruto who manages to love this village anyways, what is even up with that?

“Tell me what you’re having trouble with.” She says, striding over to sit down beside him. She bats away his protests.

She also makes a note to ask about what kind of teachers he has, but not now. Yuri knows how to be patient.

 

* * *

 

Kakashi blinks once at Naruto and Yuri at his door, looks at their hands holding paper instead of food, and wraps his fingers tighter around the doorknob. He glances at the paper, can read that the first line has to do with chakra theory, and remembers how the other day, Yuri mentioned she started helping Naruto with his homework.

“No thanks.” He says, promptly slamming the door in their faces.

“ _Hey!_ ” “ **KAKASHI.** ”

He said he’d try, and that he’d get there. Not yet.

Also, he’s already taking Naruto out for ramen every other week and he’s not even sure how that _happened_.

 

* * *

 

“Umino Iruka, I missed you.”

When he opens his door wider, Iruka smiles warmly at Yuri, pretty as always, smiling something warm as she reaches forward to hug him. His apartment is messier than normal, papers piled high to grade for the next day, coffee cups placed haphazardly about the space. He’s been meaning to tidy up, but just. It’s the time for exams soon, and he wants to make sure they all get their papers back in time so they can know what to improve. Yuri plops herself on his couch like she belongs, and Iruka doesn’t dissuade her because she does.

“I missed you too- How have you been, Yuri?”

Her smile brightens and dims in the span of a second, expression shifting into something pensive, and Iruka blinks. He wonders, if this has to do with the time Kakashi came to him to do nothing but lay down on his couch and sulk, muttering quietly to himself as Iruka let his home become his solace. Yuri and Kakashi are close but not really, brought together by the death of a ninja whom they loved in two different ways. It’s a tossup, really, whether or not the two of their troubles are the same or not.

“Hey ‘Ruka, what do you think of your coworkers?”

Iruka pauses, “Why do you ask?” 

“I know a kid who doesn’t get taught correctly because of who he is, how is that okay?”

There can only be one child that Yuri is talking about, and Iruka grimaces. He brings his hands together and steeples his fingers, finally touching the issue he’s known of but never quite knew how to handle. “We try.” He murmurs, and it sounds like a lie even to him. “But- The Kyuubi… It killed a lot of people important to us, it killed my parents, Yuri. It’s just hard sometimes.”

It’s not an excuse. Iruka tries his best to let that _ever_ be his excuse, but he understands it. He understands it, as someone who’s lost because of that demon, and he can’t say he doesn’t disprove, because of course he does, throughout it all, Naruto is a child, but. He can’t say he doesn’t see their side, either.

“You try.” Yuri replies, and it’s soft, but there’s something like tempered steel in her spine. A hardness in her eyes forged from moonlight and grief, an unforgivingness to cruelty that made her and Iruka the friends they are today. “ _You_ try, but they don’t. Don’t make excuses for them, Iruka?”

He lets go of his hands to raise them as a peace offering, “I won’t. But..” He smiles, and it’s sad. Some things are out of his hands. “I can’t report every single one of my coworkers.”

Yuri huffs, bristling, retort clear on her tongue. She opens her mouth to say something and Iruka just looks at her, calm as a storm, patience and impatience all at once. He waits, and the words never come, scathing as he’s sure they would be. Yuri eventually just deflates at his look, crossing her arms over her chest and sighing.

“It isn’t right.”

“I know it isn’t.”

They stay like that, for a moment, lamenting a school system and blatant bullying they can’t do anything about. They’re the minority, not the majority. Some things won’t change just because they wish for it. Iruka’s best bet is helping him graduate so he can get away. And when Naruto becomes great, if he actually becomes Hokage, then.

It’ll be good, satisfaction at its finest, a story of a boy hated who trumped it all with determination. Iruka inhales something sharp to exhale something calmer, and he smiles at Yuri. “So.” He starts, intent to lighten the mood clear. “I didn’t think that our meeting would actually be a parent teacher conference, since when do you adopt Naruto?”

There’s a beat of silence, he watches Yuri’s face scrunch up. “I didn’t adopt Naruto.”  
Iruka waits patiently. Sure enough, it comes.

“Oh my god." Yuri mutters softly, as if she just realized something that would shake her whole world. Iruka’s amusement is a palpable thing as she continues. "I think I just. Adopted a kid, holy-" She looks terrified, eyes on her hands as if they hold all the answers. "I feed him every day and I go shopping with him and I literally just tucked him in before I left."

Iruka pauses, one second for the horror in her tone, another for the shock, and once more before - he laughs, and it’s bright, easy, because of course, Yuri wouldn’t realize until he pointed it.

“I can’t be a _mom_ , Iruka, I never even had a pet before!”

“You guys will be good for each other.” Iruka replies, trying to stifle his laughter. “You guys _are_ good for each other.”

 

* * *

 

He’s glaring at the sunset like it’s done him a personal wrong, and Naruto blinks because. The sun never did anything wrong. The sun is just there, minding its own business, it doesn’t do anything to anyone. It just rises and sets each and every day.

It’s Uchiha Sasuke that’s glaring, leaning against a tree in the park, looking broody in the way all the girls in class gush over. Naruto doesn’t get that though, Sasuke just looks- unhappy all the time, and how the hell is that _handsome_? This is the same park Yuri found him at though, he remembers sitting on that swing all too vividly, and he also-

Naruto hears the rumors. He’s good at that, listening, even if people don’t think he is. Good at listening and good at noticing, good at disappearing when he needs to get a prank done, even better at being noticed. He knows that the Uchiha is alone, that he’s literally the last, and just.. Wonders.

Would he still be so angry if he wasn’t as alone as he is? Naruto knows the girls try to be his friend, every single one of them, and he kind of hates him for that, true. But they don’t even like him for him, and maybe no one just asked right.

It reminds him of the world repeating itself in all the best way, when he meanders over to the spiky haired boy. “Hey!”

Sasuke turns to look at him, and Naruto grins, bright as the sunshine casting a golden glow on them. “You seem pretty damn lonely! And no one should, so wanna be my friend?”

(Did you know? If you’re kind to someone, it teaches them to be kind to someone else.)

 


	4. four: the day will come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The issue with being angry, is that that is all you are for so long. You go after your grudges, you follow your spites but - what happens after? What's left? That's the problem, the after. You give your all to this one goal, you bleed for it, kill for it, but then you reach it and.
> 
> You realize that this is all you had, and now that you're there, there isn't anything left to do.
> 
> You've burned your bridges to get there, so there's no where to go back to.
> 
> (So, don't be so angry - please.)

Sasuke knows Naruto because there is no one who doesn’t know him. He’s the class idiot, failing inch by inch yet somehow grasping enough purchase to continue on to the next grade, loud and boisterous and _orange._ Sasuke thinks that he hates the color - it’s so _obnoxious_. Too bright, and now that brightness is in front of him, almost blinding. He never quite realized how much color Naruto was until he stood before him, bright yellow hair and blue eyes, orange jumpsuit a monstrosity for the world to see. Naruto smiles at him, offer to be his friend up in the air, and Sasuke narrows his eyes before he says his thoughts aloud.

“Who do you think you are?” To say he’s lonely, to say he needs a friend, to _talk_ to him, even. Who the hell does Uzumaki Naruto think he is? “I don’t want to be your friend.” He continues, to hit the nail in the coffin. Sasuke doesn’t need friends.

All he needs is to kill Itachi.

Naruto gapes at him, like he can’t believe Sasuke refused him. Sasuke only glares at him in response, looking away because this isn’t worth his time.

“You bastard! Just you wait, I’m going to be your **best friend** , and then we’ll see who’s laughing!” No one is laughing. There is just Sasuke and Naruto here, glaring at each other, Sasuke wanting to leave as soon as possible and Naruto offended beyond compare. Sasuke doesn’t get it, it’s not like Naruto has a lot of friends anyways, not like he should be that surprised that Sasuke refused his friendship. He doesn’t get it, but that doesn’t matter, does it?

Sasuke’s goal is to kill Itachi, and trying to figure out whatever is going on in Naruto’s head is a waste of his time.

“I’d like to see you try.” He scoffs, turning on his heel and leaving Naruto to fume.

 

* * *

 

Naruto does try. It’s frustrating to the point it’s impressive, the extent he leeches onto Sasuke. He sits next to him in class even when all his fangirls hiss at him for it, follow him when he leaves demanding that they should hang out. They even get dinner once together, a turn of events Sasuke is still confused on. The only thing about Naruto’s bullhead-ness in befriending him that Sasuke can say he doesn’t despise is that, well. Naruto’s not a half bad sparring partner.

Sasuke has katas from clan scrolls he’s been working to memorize, it takes him just a few tries to get praise from their academy teachers when they’re practicing motions in class. He trains himself tirelessly day after day without fail, and yet fighting with Naruto always manages to surprise him.

He’s an idiot, but for some reason, he thinks of things Sasuke could never imagine of. He’s a dirty fighter, and Sasuke hates that with his all, when Naruto wins because he threw some sand in Sasuke’s eyes or did that Oiroke jutsu of his, but even so - It’s good practice, even if Sasuke would rather be damned than do it himself.

Sasuke’s been calling Naruto’s wins flukes, but weeks has passed and Sasuke is pretty sure he has to at least admit to himself that Naruto is becoming more and more evenly matched with him.

“I could use him.” Sasuke says aloud, because no one is there to answer him. His thoughts are his thoughts alone, and none of the words that leaves his lips will be heard in this ghost of a clan compound. (Sometimes, Sasuke talks aloud because the quiet is too much.)

He could. He can certainly get strong on his own, but having a training partner can't be too bad of an idea. He's heard before that everyone has their rivals, and while Naruto might be a sad one, he's better than any of their other classmates. His stubbornness is something to be mildly respected, his inability to give up on the most mundane things something Sasuke can use. 

Sasuke is a lone wolf, yes. He has no intention making friends still.

But he looks around him, at this quiet house a few blocks away from the one he grew up with, at the Uchiha Crest on the tapestry of the living room, so large and dark in the night light. He stands up from where he was seated on the couch, fingers tracing over the fan with caution, as if his touch could burn the crest to nothing. "A promise." He murmurs, and his voice is soft but loud, because there's nothing around him but him to break the silence so strong it might as well be a physical entity. "To avenge."

This is Sasuke's mantra, his promise, his swear. This is what he tells himself every night and every morning, as dusk leaves and as dawn comes to begin again. Sasuke will not forget what he came from, what made him. He will never forget the sight of his parents falling dead in front of him to his brother's sword, will never forget the indifference in his gaze as he told Sasuke he  _wasn't worth it_. There are things in your past that make you, and this was what made Sasuke.

There is no time to feel alone, all he has time for is the pursuit of his revenge.

If Naruto can help him with that, then Sasuke will let him. Even if sometimes, Sasuke hates him.

Maybe hate is too much a strong word, he doesn't care about Naruto that much. He just - There is something, because Sasuke is not stupid, nor is he blind. Throughout the weeks Naruto began to cling to him like a sea urchin, Sasuke has noticed more things than he'd like about his idiot classmate.

They're two sides of the same coin, and maybe that's what Sasuke hates. He doubts the other is smart enough to realize it, but; having a family to lose it versus never having one at all, idolized and coddled versus ignored and hated, top of the class versus the bottom. Both so terribly alone with two contrasting personalities. So of course, Sasuke knew of Naruto. He doesn't like how he's beginning to know more and more about the blond, but.

Naruto might just  _get_ it. So he's not a terrible person to have as a rival. Not a friend, just a sparring partner at best.  

 

* * *

 

Sasuke just bought a bag of fresh tomatoes when Naruto yells his name loud enough he drops the one in his hand. He can only watch it roll away in mild horror, too late to stop it as a civilian crosses its path. Sasuke has half a mind to yell at them, but before he can their sandal meets the ripe tomato. A sickening squelch is heard, and while the chatter that's the civilian screaming about their foot is loud, Sasuke can only think of two things.

The tomato, the ripest, biggest of the bunch that he was going to eat first, lost to the world.

And Naruto, grinning at Sasuke like he didn't know the gravity of the mistake he just did. 

The other boy is holding on to a bag of groceries, and there's vengeance burning in his soul as he moves forward to knock the bags out of his hand. Naruto lets out a squawk of offense, but Sasuke can't even care, his lost tomato needing to be avenged as soon as possible.  

"What was that for, bastard!"

_My tomato._  

"Fuck, these weren't even my groceries, hey! Come with me, you're going to apologize to Yuri!"

Who the hell is that? Sasuke wasn't aware Naruto had any friends.

 

* * *

 

Yuri is pretty older woman with dark brown hair and amber eyes, and Sasuke is half expecting her to start cooing at him like all the others do.

She does not, much to his surprise. When Naruto points at him and tells her that Sasuke shoved him for no reason, Yuri stares disapprovingly at him. She doesn't say a word, and the silence continues until Naruto breaks it himself. 

"Well? Punish him or something, Yuri!"

Yuri keeps staring at him, completely ignoring Naruto, and Sasuke thinks he might like her.

"Hey." She finally speaks up, and Sasuke looks at her in response. "What's your name?"

"Bastard."

"Naruto, please shut up."

Sasuke crosses his hands over his arms, "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Do you not know how to apologize for ruining someone's groceries?"

"... Sorry."

"Not good enough, you're helping me spring clean. Naruto, take some money and buy whatever was ruined."

Sasuke takes it back, he doesn't like her after all. "I can pay for the groceries instead." He offers, ready to go home and eat all the tomatoes he just bought as a treat for whatever this day was becoming. He reaches into his pocket to grab his money pouch, but pauses when he sees Yuri shake her head. 

"No, you're going to be paying me back in manual labor. Naruto, go."

Sasuke watches Naruto stick his tongue out at him from beside Yuri, and he can't help it when his mouth opens to snap at him. "Oh, so Naruto can actually do to the math to buy things?"

"Hey! Shut up, bastard, I can so do math."

"Really."

"More likely you half ass cleaning because you're too good for it-"

"I won't do that-"

"Oh my god, Naruto, leave. Sasuke, grab a rag."

 

* * *

 

"Is that a sword?" Sasuke asks, argument with Naruto forgotten as he stares at a blue hilted katana in the back of the closet. Yuri pauses at his question and follows his gaze, and there's something unreadable in her expression before she inclines her head. She reaches into the closet to pull it out, frowning at the weight of it in her hands before she hands it over to Sasuke. He accepts it with two hands, and the weight is - heavy, but not too heavy. He would need to train to be able to hold it without any sweat, but he could handle it. There's a certain.. weight about it though, that doesn't have to do with the tempered steel he's sure it's made out of. Dark eyes shift from the sword to Yuri, and for once, she doesn't smile when their gazes meet. 

Instead, her expression is thoughtful. Not happy, but not particularly displeased either. "It was my husband's." She tells him after a silence, "Chakra sword, he.. he told me it could take whatever chakra you put into it and use that attribute with each strike. Or something of that nature, you need to ask Kakashi for the actual details. He loved that thing a lot - called his companion, so I just, you know... kept it after he died, because it was a part of him."

"So you're just letting this weapon collect dust in the back of a supply closet?" Sasuke asks, and he doesn't mean to snap at her for it because. He gets it, old mementos, but he knows chakra swords are rare, and it's a waste for it to just be rusting in storage instead of being used. His eyebrows are furrowed as he looks up at her, frown clear on his face. He takes care not to call her an idiot or anything because of it though, reminding himself that she's a civilian and doesn't know any better. Civilians don't really get that weapons are meant to be used, so he tells her that as part of his argument.

"Weapons are meant to be used." 

Yuri's expression takes a sharp right turn from thoughtfulness to outright annoyance, and she mutters under her breath two words that sound suspiciously like " _fucking ninja"_  before she reaches to grab the sword away from his grasp. He lets her, because the sword isn't his to begin with but.. There's something like regret in his chest when the katana leaves his grasp.

Sasuke wonders how much it would take to buy it from her. He asks her.

Yuri tells him to shut up and keep cleaning.

He grumbles and does it, grabbing the rag he was using to scrub out a nasty spot in the wooden closet floor. The apartment is quiet again with the exception of the sounds of cleaning, the katana put off to the side with such care that Sasuke makes a conscious effort not to ask about it again. Without Naruto, the quiet is almost loud because of how empty the place seems without the blond's incessant chatter to fill the air. There's also the awkwardness that fills the air to cause more tension, because no matter how strange a civilian she is, Yuri is still a stranger introduced to him through Naruto.

It makes him almost regret trying to buy off that sword, but not really.

"You can have it." Yuri starts, words so sudden it makes him startle. Not flinch, but pause. He pauses even longer when he realizes the only thing she could be talking about is the sword. "When you stop being so angry."

Sasuke glares at her, "I'm not angry." At least, he wasn't before she accused him of being angry. Now he kind of is, but no one can blame him for that. He notices her expression just turn amused though, and she huffs a breath of laughter before reaching forward to run her finger over the sheath.

"You are right now." She points out easily, continuing to speak before Sasuke can argue. "But I mean - at the world. Or whatever it is that's ailing you, just." Yuri looks away from the sword to look at him, and her eyes are golden like the glow of a candle at night. "You're furious at the world, and that's understandable because of what you went through, but it's no way to live. So you can have this sword when you learn how to let go."

There is offense rising in his chest like an inflating balloon, and Sasuke wonders who this woman is to say those words. Who does she think she  _is_?Sasuke is an Uchiha, the last loyal one to Konoha. There is prestige in his name and his blood, everyone around him knows it. No one before her has told him that he was going about this wrong, so why should he think her words have any truth to them? 

Sasuke's anger is red hot, heated steel ready to be forged into a weapon, and his glare is sharp as can be. "Who do you think you are-" He cuts himself off, bites his tongue because he doesn't need to argue about this to a civilian. "What makes you think I want your sword to begin with?"

Yuri stares at him for a long time before she answers him, and her voice is quiet. She doesn't answer any of his questions, instead saying a single sentence that Sasuke will fume over until Naruto returns and breaks all the tension with the grace of a hammer.

"I just think you might feel a lot better if you would let yourself take a breath."


	5. five: pride stuck in your eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes a lot sometimes; to admit you're wrong, to bring forth an idea that will trouble you but be for the better, to put aside your own misgivings in hopes that it will help someone else. It takes a lot to let go, to let yourself take a breath.
> 
> So when you do, let me tell you this - I'm proud of you.
> 
> -
> 
> Hi! College killed me, but I'm alive now, so here we are.

“I went about it wrong.” Yuri announces, and Kakashi pauses, eyes narrowing in thought as he tries to parse what exactly she’s talking about. It’s just the two of them and Pakkun, whose ears are being scratched by the woman before him, and there was nothing between them but silence until Yuri broke it herself. Kakashi looks around as if Yuri could be talking to anyone else, putting down the kunai he was sharpening to reach for another one. He studies the woman before him without looking away from the blade and the whetstone.

He doesn’t ask, but he does make a noise in his throat that tells her to keep going.

“Uchiha Sasuke.” She continues, and the name makes Kakashi pause, another demon of his past incarnated into the form of a child. A wound different than Naruto but one all the same, and wonders idly if this is some extremely roundabout way to make him deal with his past.

 “I met him - and I told him that I would give him Takeshi’s sword if he stopped being so angry, that he needed to take a breath and he was.. Very angry, but also looked so completely... I think I went about it wrong, tell me more about that boy?”

 He’s the relative of Obito, one of the last Uchiha, spared by his brother in a massacre so bloody that it surprised even Kakashi. He was tortured for what felt like an eternity in what was actually the span of a few minutes, he’s the avenger, he’s unstable, he’s someone Kakashi _knows_ he will have to meet because he is the only one in Konoha able to teach him.

(The eye is a curse more than a blessing, sometimes.)

Kakashi doesn’t say all of this aloud, but he does say some of it - tells Yuri about the torture, tells her about exactly what happened other than the rumors. Her expression grows more and more disturbed, fingers faltering the steady pace with which she was scratching Pakkun behind the ears.

“... You said he’s living alone?” There’s something in the tone of her voice that speaks like fury, like grief, and Kakashi doesn’t say anything for a second because he doesn’t think it’s anything to be so angry about. He himself lived alone when his father - and so was Naruto before Yuri picked him up and slowly but surely adopted him, it can’t be that uncommon. His silence may be answer enough though, because Yuri’s expression comes to match her tone. Her eyebrow furrows, her lips turn downward, and she keeps her hands off of Pakkun because her hands are curling into fists.

“His family was murdered, in front of him - he was tortured, and.. He’s living _ alone _ in the clan grounds that a massacre occurred?” The disbelief in her voice is palpable, and Kakashi doesn’t mention the crack in her voice when she said the words  _ alone _ . Her gaze is burning when she looks at Kakashi’s eyes.

“Naruto was one thing, because they hate him, and he didn’t get it either when I - Naruto was one thing to be alone, but why the hell did you guys think it was a good idea to leave - he’s a child, Kakashi, they’re fucking _children._ ” 

So was he, when his father died. But he joined the war and the missions and fought the battle anyways. He picked himself up and he adapted, pushing away all the broken pieces of himself until he could pretend they didn’t exist anymore. Kakashi doesn’t know what he could possibly tell her in response to her grief, to the disbelief palpable in the air. He keeps sharpening his kunai, slow but sure, not faltering as he pushes the blade against a tool made to make it all the more deadly.

“Kakashi.” Yuri says, repeating his name, and it sounds on the precipice of pleading.

“I don’t know what you want me to say to that. They are children, yes, but they’re also ninja. In a few years when they graduate they’ll be an adult in the eyes of a law, and I was considered one already by the age they’re at.”

There’s a divide between them Kakashi knows they can never cross, him and Yuri. He’s a ninja and she’s a civilian, he kills for a living and she was raised in such a way where that could only be frowned upon.

But.

“I can’t comment much on what’s right and what’s not.” Because their very foundations are different, their morals and their upbringings and the beliefs that make them both. “But what I can say is..” He pauses, because what he’s about to offer up will undoubtedly trickle over from Yuri to him. 

Yuri is right though, how there’s something wrong about the little avenger being left alone in a palace of ghosts. Kakashi wonders how things would have changed if someone like Yuri took his hand when he was still a child, reeling from the death of a father who he only later realized what was everything a hero should be. He wonders how different Naruto would have been if Yuri didn’t adopt him as her own.

Between him and Naruto, Kakashi has no qualms or hesitation admitting who was better off.

“You gave Naruto a place to go back to.” This is meddling, and Kakashi is not much a fan of that. It’s Yuri’s thing, Iruka’s thing - to meddle, but. “You could give Sasuke one too, a place that isn’t filled with the ghosts of a massacre.”

This will begin something, Kakashi knows. Naruto in Yuri’s life has meant Naruto in Kakashi’s life as well. The two of them are too close, neighbors with one of them one who’s constantly looking after his health, a protector and protected because a promise was made with someone precious to them both now gone. Naruto’s presence in Yuri’s life bled into Kakashi’s the way that ink on paper will bleed onto the page below. 

Yuri meddling into Sasuke’s life and bringing him into the fold will bring Sasuke in his life as well, but.

 Kakashi has spent a long time running from his fears.

 There’s a time where he needs to face them, especially if it means that the next generation will be all the better for it.

 He finally looks up at Yuri because she’s quieted, and there’s something impossibly soft about her expression. The fondness in her eyes makes him want to look away, the pride in her smile making him feel like she might come and try to hug him any second now.

 "Okay. I will.”

 

* * *

 

Sasuke and Naruto were sparring, and Naruto won. Sasuke is face up on the ground and the sky is almost beautiful, he’s heaving gulps of breath in order to still his beating heart from the adrenaline still pumping in his veins. He knows for a fact everything is going to ache later, that he should be angry that he lost and demand a rematch but.

 It’s been a long time since anger hasn’t controlled his being. It’s been a while since he’s been tired and aching but also filled with a sense of satisfaction so deep it seeps into his bones. His being is empty, but it isn’t the kind of empty that corresponds with nothing. It’s the kind of empty that you get when you take a deep breath and exhale, when all your emotion has been left in return for something dangerously close to contentment.

 Naruto isn’t a terrible rival.

 Sasuke turns his head to look at the very boy who beat him, sprawled haphazardly beside him - He isn’t crowing about his victory at the top of his lungs like he normally does. He’s just looking up at the sky, grinning, breaths short just like Sasuke’s and as if feeling Sasuke’s gaze on him, turns.

 Blue eyes meet onyx, and Naruto smiles at him.

 (For a flicker of a second, Sasuke compares that grin to the sky he saw just seconds before.)

 “Good spar!” Naruto exclaims, turning so his whole body is facing Sasuke before he jumps to his feet. 

 Sasuke nods before he can help himself, and, to add on. “For a dead last, that wasn’t bad.”

 He expects Naruto to rise up like lava erupting, anger joking but quick, indignation clear on his face. Instead, he just laughs, hands behind his head as he looks as Sasuke. “Not bad for a bastard.” He replies with a vulpine grin, reaching out to help Sasuke up.

 Sasuke thinks of batting away his hand and getting up himself. He doesn’t need help, and maybe another time he would be more angry at Naruto for even assuming that he does, but. 

This was a good day, and good days are far and in between. He’s been angrier than normal lately what with the words of that woman replaying in his head like a broken record, words of moving on and taking breaths things he wants to spit in the face of. Now, the anger has subsided. It’s like Sasuke took all his anger out in the spar, and the two of them are bruised and cut as a result, but now?

Sasuke takes Naruto’s hand and lets him help him up.

He’s tired of arguing with Naruto, so for this one day, he’ll have a reprieve from that. It isn’t friendship, it’s simply a one time thing.

(Is what he says, but something shifts when he takes Naruto’s hand. He just doesn’t know it yet.)

 

* * *

“Naruto?” 

Naruto looks up from his dinner - rice and salmon and miso, and blinks up at Yuri in question, paused in motion with the scene of him just about to shovel rice in his mouth. “Uh, yeah?”

“Are you and Sasuke friends now?”

Naruto closes his mouth at the question, blinking. Yuri hasn’t mentioned Sasuke since the day she made him help spring clean with her. Naruto remembers that day, how Sasuke marched out the moment the cleaning was done, lines of anger so sharp in his posture it looked almost painful. He remembers asking Yuri what happened and her telling him to drop it, the displeased tilt to her mouth, how he had told her if Sasuke was too much of a bastard to her, he would go and beat him up.

(Her laugh, as she thanked him, refused the offer and told him that - nothing was unfounded, so it was alright.)

He remembers the day Sasuke took his hand after that spar, the almost companionable silence that falls between them sometimes. There’s still a distance between them that can’t be crossed, but Naruto has stopped the dogged attempts to befriend Sasuke since then. He almost forgot the declaration of his to make Sasuke his friend no matter what - and maybe that’s because they already crossed the threshold.

“Maybe?” Naruto asks, because it’s not like they hang out. It’s just training, but. Sasuke isn’t nearly as much as a bastard as before even if he definitely still is one, he takes Naruto’s hand when the blonde helps him up, and. Well, it’s different now, even if Naruto isn’t sure if he would call it friendship.

Respect maybe, no matter how grudging. It’s like Sasuke looks at him and finally sees him, and that might be worth more than Naruto could have imagined.

“Do you know about Sasuke’s past?” Yuri asks him softly, and Naruto tilts his head.

“I know his family is gone and he lives alone.”

“Yeah.”

She doesn’t say anything after that, and Naruto feels kind of like there’s something he should be doing to fill the silence. He doesn’t know what though, doesn’t understand why Sasuke came up to begin with -

Well. If you don’t know, there’s no harm in asking. Yuri will answer him best she can even if she doesn’t know the answer, he knows this now.

“Why’d you ask?”

“Well,” she starts, raising an eyebrow, “I remember when you came home fuming because you were determined to make that ‘duck haired bastard’ your friend.” She puts finger quotation marks around Naruto’s favorite nickname for Sasuke, and there’s something like amusement shimmering in her eyes. That tilt to her lips though - Naruto is getting to know Yuri, and he knows the absent smile of her thinking. “Why did you.. Reach out to him and decide to become his friend, Naruto?”

Because like begets like, is the answer. Because Naruto didn’t know Sasuke, and maybe he doesn’t know him still, but there was always a companionship between them. There was always something unspoken, and Naruto always felt like for some things, him and Sasuke were on the same level of. Because for all they are opposites, it’s like they’re the same too. Because -

 “He’s lonely.” Naruto knows loneliness. It’s what he saw each time he looked in the mirror until recently.

 “And I’m not lonely anymore, because I have you, and I thought that you know - Maybe I could make him less lonely like you made me less lonely, because being all alone _sucks_ and having company doesn’t.” The more he speaks, the more embarrassed Naruto gets - He didn’t think he’d ever admit to being lonely, scratches his nose as he looks up to meet Yuri’s eyes and…

 Pauses.

She looks at him in a way he’s not sure he’s ever looked at him before, amber eyes filled with warmth like the sunlight hitting your skin on a nice day. Her cheek is resting on her hand as she stares at him, and she looks a little like she might cry but more like - Like pride. 

Oh, that’s it.

Yuri looks like she’s proud of him.

“You’re a really, really good kid, Naruto.” Her words are filled with such honesty to them that he has to look away, his cheeks flushing at the warm praise. “So good, what the fuck.” He hears her stand up from her seat, the sound of her clothes rustling. Yuri reaches forward, and suddenly there’s a hand on his head. She ruffles his hair, fingers carding through golden locks, and the motion makes Naruto turn to look at her again.

She’s smiling at him, and it makes him smile back.

“Would it be okay with you,” she begins, leaning back and sitting back in her chair, “If you got a roommate, or a new neighbor? I think Sasuke is lonely too, and when we first met I kind of really pissed him off but - He’s still lonely, and I think with the both of us, we can make it so he isn’t alone anymore.”

Naruto isn’t going to lie - He wants to be Sasuke’s friend, sure, and he wants Sasuke to look less of a miserable, angsty, little bastard, but. He can’t say he’s certain about Sasuke moving in with them. He likes the way his life is now, Yuri like a mix between an older sister and a mom, Kakashi that weird uncle that’s distant but not that bad. He isn’t sure.. If he’d be good with sharing?

But Sasuke is lonely, and Naruto thinks that in the end. Well. Even if his time with Yuri and Kakashi lessens because of Sasuke, it’s better than what Sasuke had before and that makes it worth it.

If you can help someone, then why wouldn’t you?

“He wouldn’t move in or anything immediately.” She says, probably due to Naruto’s lack of answer. “I mean, you took a few months to convince you to move in, and I think he’s more stubborn than you are but - He’s kind of living alone in a compound where all his family was murdered, so I’m honestly happy as long as he moves out? It’ll be slow going, and I’m telling you this but I’m also kind of.” Yuri pauses. Winces a little, “Definitely going to try to get him more involved in my life for sure - I can’t.

“I can’t just leave him alone, now that I learned how bad things are for him-”

“Okay! I can just throw him at Pakkun and run if he’s getting too annoying or something, but he’s staying on the couch, I’m not giving up my bed.” Definitely not. Yuri bought him patterned sheets of narutomaki the other day, and the only way he’s giving those blankets up are if he  _ dies _ . 

Yuri blinks in surprise and then smiles at him, small and true. “Deal. Invite him to dinner tomorrow? If you could find out what his favorite foods are, then that’d be great, but I’m also half sure you might need to just knock him out and drag him here, so I’m ready to just wing it.”

“If he’s being rude, I might just do that without asking.”

“Remember we want him to like us- Or well, he definitely already likes you if you’re maybe friends, we want him to like me?”

Yuri’s rambling, Naruto notices. And she never really rambles. He’s used to her being the epitome of grace, always at ease, always knowing exactly what words to say. It’s a change, but not a bad one - Like learning something new, more like.

“It’ll work out! Oh, can we do spice roulette tomorrow then-”

“Naruto.”

He grins back at her, vulpine, the grin of a prankster. “Next time.” If Sasuke is going to be staying (no matter if he likes it or not), he's going to adhere to their budding traditions.

 


	6. six: wearing down whetstone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To be happy is something you have to let yourself be, to be good is something you have to attempt every day, and to change means you have to be open to it to begin with. But to start, oh to start, all you have to do is look at yourself and think; I want to do different.
> 
> In which Kakashi has an epiphany, Yuri is trying her best, Naruto is learning how to be thoughtful, and Sasuke takes the first step.
> 
> -
> 
> The Kakashi section of this was not in my bare bones outline at all, it literally wrote itself, and I have no regrets.

“Hey bastard, wanna come over for dinner?”

Sasuke looks at Naruto, expression giving across his thoughts clearly. It’s a question, it’s disbelief, it’s a _what the fuck, why the hell._ Sasuke and Naruto aren’t _friends_ , they aren’t the kind of people who invite each other over for dinner. They literally just spent the afternoon beating each other to a pulp because someone said something, egos were bruised, and neither of them quite knew how to end an argument without fists. 

And yet, Sasuke considers it. (Because it’s better than coming home to an empty compound. Because Naruto is loud and brash and annoying but he’s anything but silent. Because they have eaten together before; Naruto once sat him in a place called Ichiraku’s, and he’d been too disturbed to tear his eyes away from Naruto literally _breathing in ramen_ to leave. Naruto has tried to snatch his own shio ramen from him, and Sasuke has snatched it back and started eating to keep the dead last from eating it. And so– They had dinner together once. 

So, he gives Naruto a favorite non-answer. 

“Hn.”

Naruto stops. Sits up from where he was sprawled on Sasuke, “I tried, and I’ll tell Yuri that.” He announces, and Sasuke freezes because he almost forgot that Naruto lives with that _woman_ who told Sasuke to calm down and who still leaves him _seething just at the thought of her condescending-_  

“I.” Naruto starts, interrupting Sasuke’s thoughts because his whole existence just has to be an interruption. “Am going to fight you, and if I win, you _have_ to come over for dinner.” He announces this like of course Sasuke will accept, like he’s stating a fact, looking at him with a mullish expression that makes Sasuke want to punch off of him. Sasuke sits up and shoves Naruto back, but the blond just rocks back like a rocking toy, expression still determined. Sasuke snarls, because for once Naruto’s anger is rising up to battle his own, for once he just looks steady and for a split second, he _hates._

“Why would I agree to that?” He hisses, tone acrid, venom dripping from every syllable. His hands curl into fists, fingernails digging into his palm to make sure the fist stays closed. Onyx eyes narrow, especially when he watches Naruto’s lips curve up into a smile like a fox. 

“Oh, you think you’re going to lose, _bastard_?”

Anger is a wave, it’s when the tide pulls back a terrifying amount only to rear forward and knock you off your feet. It’s the snarl that escapes his lips as his eyes glare so hard he swears he could have unlocked sharingan if he tried hard enough. It’s the, “Fine, like an idiot like you will _ever_ beat me-” he snarls out without even thinking, even though hours later when the rage has escaped, he will remember how Naruto has already beat him before. It’s this desire to do whatever it takes to wipe that smile off of Naruto’s face, to accept his challenge, and Sasuke seethes even more as Naruto’s grin grows.

(Who does he think he is-)

Sasuke’s fist raises and reaches over to punch Naruto in his nose, enough of a surprise that Naruto yelps and rocks back. He sees blood dripping as Naruto holds his nose in his hands, pinching it and alternating between looking up and the sky and glaring at him. 

And just like that, the anger is leaving. Not completely, but enough that Sasuke stands, arms crossing over his chest. “I won.” He starts, tone daring Naruto to argue when blood still flows from his nostrils. “And this isn’t worth my time.” It isn’t. He isn’t going to fight with Naruto over something like dinner when he can just go home and eat, isn’t going to be in the same vicinity as that condescending civilian who dared tell him to calm down. He’s an Uchiha, and he does not need to lower himself to this - no matter how tempting it might be.

He turns on his foot and leaves, trying desperately to not march away, to keep onto a cool persona. He’s better than Naruto, he _is_ , he doesn’t need to continue this fight when he knows he’ll win.

 

* * *

 

Kakashi comes back from the mission with bruised ribs and charred hair and a mountain of bruises and scratches, an ache in his bones that’s two parts satisfying and one part desperate for rest. He lifts his wolf mask from his face, decorated porcelain cool against his fingertips, and … breathes, for a second. Catalogues his injuries, all of those of his team. They all look a little worse for wear but nothing fatal, and it makes Kakashi breathe a little easier, makes satisfaction slide into his chest feeling like well worn steel and a job well done. The mission may have went a little south, it may have taken a little longer than they all thought it would - but no one is dead or dying. They’re okay. (Ready for the next one.)

“Hey Captain.” Genma pipes up, leaning on Raidou because someone nearly sliced his Achilles tendon. He looks at ease though, eyes closed as he speaks, taking comfort in the fact that the lot of them are all back in Konoha, where the grass is green and the forest greener still. Kakashi can understand - he misses Konoha whenever the missions take too long, the scent of forest and home something that will always put him at ease. “Are we going to visit the princess now?”

Kakashi snorts at the nickname for Yuri that’s never been dropped, a tease from the very first time Takeshi saw her and murmured to their group that she looked like a princess from a far off land. He looks at all of them once more; Genma’s ankle is his largest injury that wasn’t healed by the medic nins, Raidou’s arm is a splint but he seems awake enough, Tenzo has a concussion and needs to sleep it off, but Tenzo wasn’t part of their original group to begin with, and he normally passes on their little tradition (promise).

“Tenzo?” Kakashi asks, eyes not leaving the younger man.

“Ah, go without me Kakashi-senpai, Yuri-san has… always made me feel a little uncomfortable, so I’ll just go home and rest.” 

“Just let her mother you.” Raidou comments, only to elbow Genma when the tokujo comments that Raidou mothers him enough. 

Tenzo neatly shunshins away.

Kakashi himself turns to leave, towards his little apartment complex to go and check up on Yuri, whose always falls a little bit apart at times like this, and - Naruto.

Who when he told him was leaving for a while, gave him a hug just too tight. Whose easy expression fell to insecurity and worry, who told Kakashi in a too loud voice that he has to come back so Kakashi can finally fall prey to spice roulette, the emphasis on _come back_ something neither of them commented on. Who Kakashi remembers had a test on chakra theory a week ago that he was complaining about, and Kakashi realizes just now, as he stands before Yuri’s door, that. 

He is no longer afraid of Naruto. Not when throughout these long months, the weekly ramen dinners, the impromptu tutoring lessons, the insistence of walking his ninken, the very act of _knowing_ this boy. He is no longer afraid of all the things Naruto stood for, even though it still hurts because he has Minato-sensei’s coloring and Kushina’s face, her penchant for pranks and his quiet determination. But he no longer cares to stay distant from him, not really, not when he has grown to know Naruto Uzumaki and love him as well.

It’s an epiphany, Kakashi realizes, that was a while in the making. 

The door opens seconds after Genma gets too tired of Kakashi staring at the door number like it holds all the answers in the universe and knocks himself. It swings open, and Kakashi can see sky blue eyes and straw blond hair, a grin widening like sunrise as arms reach forward and grasp him tight in a hug. He dimly registers that Naruto shouted his name when he saw him, that Yuri is padding forward too, but Kakashi grows stiff under the touch, wholly uncertain with any physicality from someone not his dogs. 

Hugs aren’t something he’s used to, and it’s far too soon to deal with this bear hug when Kakashi just now admitted his fondness for Naruto.

Thankfully, Naruto backs off the second Genma comments on how he wasn’t aware Yuri adopted - even though he definitely was. Gemna used to be on Naruto’s security detail and he was definitely there the first few weeks Naruto and Yuri were getting to know each other. Kakashi vividly remembers being witness to the hug Genma gave Yuri when he found out she was making him stay with him, a thank you for everything he too classified to tell her.

“Who- Who the hell are you two?” Naruto shrieks, loud enough that Yuri winces. 

“Naruto, our neighbors.” Yuri chides, finally speaking. But she isn’t looking at Naruto, her gaze habitually switching between Genma and Raido and Kakashi like clockwork. Amber eyes drink them in for a long moment before Kakashi watches the tension in her shoulders finally leave. “Everyone okay?” She asks, two words the beginning to a routine that make Genma and Raido nudge him out of the way to hug Yuri and ruffle her hair.

“We’re all okay, Yuri. You can stop your worrying now, it’s Raido’s job to be the mother hen.”

That finally pulls a smile from her, small and true. Kakashi steps into the threshold and closes the door behind him, ruffling Naruto’s hair after a moment’s hesitation.

It makes the boy light up impossibly bright, so much Kakashi instantly looks away.

He turns to look at Yuri instead, who’s brightening but still dimmer than normal - she’s holding onto Genma and Raido like she’s double checking they’re real, muttering softly as she looks at all the injuries before patting their faces. He watches her turn to meet his own eyes, weaving past the other two to place herself directly in front of him. She raises her hands in front of him, not saying a word but eyes conveying her message easily enough. It takes a moment before Kakashi nods, but that’s enough for her to start patting him down like she did the other two, pausing when she touches his ribs and feels him stutter under her hands. Her eyes are suspiciously bright and Kakashi grabs her wrist, making sure his grip is gentle. 

“We’re all alright.” He says, repeating Genma’s words. “Tenzo has a concussion, but he’s sleeping it off at his place.” Kakashi doesn’t need to mention that he’s going to be checking up on him soon to make sure he is sleeping. “Yuri, we’re all in one piece.”

“Okay.” She replies, voice whisper soft, expression on the precipice of tears. Naruto had turned to stare at Yuri with a worried expression from where he was talking to Genma and Raido, but the other two don’t flinch because they’re used to this, now, and they know what Yuri wants from them. Some people break in pieces, some people break so loudly that everyone around them knows. Some fall to anger and some will to tears, some to a denial so deep they convince themselves they never broke at all. He has known Yuri for nearly a decade now, and he knows how she breaks as well as how she knows him. 

She never did well when anyone from their old squad left on a mission longer than a week. 

“What do you need?” Kakashi asks, because he never did know how to comfort, but he does know how to follow orders. The words make her smile, and she takes a moment before answering. 

“Um. Find out what Sasuke’s favorite food is?”

Kakashi nods once. 

 

* * *

 

Yuri is holding a bag of freshly grown tomatoes, standing before the only inhabited house in a ghost compound. She’s - tired, to say the least, but she thinks this is something she needs to do as soon as possible. Naruto has been trying his best to fight beat Sasuke to bring him over to dinner, but he’s been too concerned trying to study material he didn’t really get without Kakashi to explain it in easier terms. Also concerned about Yuri, which makes her feel a little guilty - but. She didn’t put as much effort into getting to Sasuke as she should have, because he’s a child still and so angry, because Yuri was on edge and ready to snap and she would have never forgiven herself if she snapped at Sasuke. It doesn’t matter if their ideologies are so completely different, if the words that left his mouth were cruel and insensitive - Sasuke is still a child, and Yuri had no desire to get him caught up in her grief. 

Now though, now she’s better, enough that she can weather any of this boy’s moods, armed with critical knowledge she didn’t have before. She knocks on his door, a gentle rap of her knuckles, and smiles when the door opens and onyx eyes meet her own. 

“I have tomatoes for you.” She exclaims before he can say a word, words cheery as she pushes the bag filled to the brim forward. He pauses in motion, hand on the doorknob still but yet to slam it open. He looks at her so warily she wants to wince, but the fact he hasn’t kicked her out completely is probably as much as a welcome to speak as she’s going to get. 

“Both an apology and a bribe.” She continues, “A bribe to let me keep talking, and an apology for what I said that day. I went about it wrong, and I can admit that. I didn’t mean to make your struggles and trauma anything less, to excuse your anger like you don’t understand it because it isn’t like that.” She pauses, and he’s looking at her with an indecipherable expression, but that’s a lot better than anger. She continues, words she’s thought about since Kakashi told her about his tragedy. The words come out quickly, because she wants to be certain she gets it all out, that he listens. “It’s just that - I don’t understand. I’m never going to understand, and I won’t try to because that’s insulting to you. But I do understand loneliness, and that quiet can be the loudest thing in the world, sometimes. So I’m going to ask you to join me and Naruto for dinner, because I think it would be nice, and good for both of us, if you were a little less lonely.” The words leave her in a rush, and all of a sudden Yuri is washed over with a wave of embarrassment. He’s staring at her like he doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to even begin parsing what she just said. No anger, just confusion, and it’s heartbreaking, to think not one person before her and Naruto had asked him into their lives to ease the loneliness. 

“It isn’t healthy.” She continues, because he needs to know this is something she will not budge on. “What you’re doing. But I won’t mention it when you come to dinner at first, eventually, like wearing down whetstone, but not at first. Just think of it like a trial run?” She’s rambling now, because Sasuke still hasn’t said a word, because he’s still staring at her like he doesn’t quite comprehend. Yuri stands her ground though, decides that she’s said all she needed to (she doesn’t want to keep rambling and say the wrong thing) and just moves her tomato bag forward until Sasuke grabs them. “Think about it.” She pleads, trying not to sound desperate but probably failing, turning around to return back home. 

 

* * *

 

It has been three months since Naruto had decided to be Sasuke’s friends, three weeks since Naruto first invited him over for dinner, and one week since Yuri herself had come to his doorstep to apologize. Naruto has started every spar of theirs since with the exclamation that to beat Sasuke would mean Sasuke has to come over for dinner and - he just lost. Naruto is laughing in victory, jumping up and down in delight, and Sasuke is bitter he lost, sure, but.

For a second, he wonders if it would really be so bad if he did come over for dinner.

Him and Naruto still aren’t friends, and Yuri has just crossed the line from aborrent to bearable (she’s been dropping by to invite him to dinner every other day since, or at least, to give him a container of leftovers that he’s been steadfastly refusing). The two of them aren’t terrible, but the idea of coming to their place to share dinner with them, in a home instead of outside in a restaurant.. It feels a little bit like betrayal, and the taste of it is uncomfortable on his tongue.

“Alright, I’m gonna shower, see you at dinner then!” Naruto crows, crossing his hands over his arms as he leans forward. “You ain’t going to back out, are you?” 

“Shut up, dead last.” Sasuke snaps, watches Naruto’s expression turn too close to thoughtful for his liking. 

“It’s just dinner, Sasuke.” A beat. “Though I guess if you’re gonna be too much of a sore loser, we can change the bet so you have to come over for food after I beat you three times.”

It’s an escape, and it grates that it’s Naruto that gives it to him, just a little. That suddenly, Naruto is someone who won’t just drag him all the way to his place kicking and screaming when the Naruto he knew before definitely would have. It’s proof that Naruto is _changing_ , even if most things are still the same - His penchant for pranks, his love for orange, the way his laughter comes all too easy, how he never stays down for long no matter how much he loses. 

“Shut up.” Sasuke repeats, because change isn’t always good. Change can be _terrible_ , and Sasuke doesn’t need change when all he needs is to _avenge._

 

* * *

 

Days pass, turn into weeks, and one night, when the quiet is too loud, when all the ghosts won’t leave him alone, he leaves the compound to walk a path he’s only walked once before. The last time, he was dragged to this doorstep, and this time he stands willingly.

Sasuke won the spar today, but for a second he wishes he didn’t - until he pushes that thought away because Sasuke is always glad to win, no one ever regrets losing.

But he doesn’t know what to say when they ask him why he’s here.

It’s just that the quiet was too loud, that no one was there and yet everyone’s ghosts stood. That some nights, there’s no more anger, there’s just some emotion in his chest he can’t explain that feels like his chest is tearing itself in two. Sasuke hates that emotion, that comes mostly when he’s alone, mostly in the silence of his home. He hates how the silence is so thick that sometimes he doesn’t know how to break it, so he walked to the doorstep of one of the loudest people he’s ever met. (Ninja aren’t supposed to be loud, so he really doesn’t understand why Naruto is.)

He doesn’t knock, even though he stands before the door. He doesn’t knock, because he’s here but for a moment, he doesn’t think he knows how to.

But someone else opens the door, except it isn’t the one he’s standing in front of, but the door right next to it. A man with grey hair that defies gravity and a mask covering his mouth and nose steps out, and he glances at Sasuke but doesn’t say anything to him.

(Sasuke’s glad for it.)

He does, however, reach over him and knock on the door right next to him, two clear raps before he pulls back. Before Sasuke can say anything, the man retreats back into his apartment and closes the door silently behind him. Before Sasuke can really wonder what just happened, the door opens to reveal Yuri, hair loose around her shoulders, yukata periwinkle. 

“Sasuke.” She greets, lips curving up into a smile as she nods her head forward as a hello. “Are you here for dinner? Come in.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because I love canon divergence fics, always wondered about these certain plot holes, lamented a lot about the cruelty of people, and thought they all deserved something soft. 
> 
> If you want to talk with me and cry about the found family trope, I'm @jellowin on tumblr.


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